nodomo

I got the United card in April 2018 when the offer was 50k points, with a bonus 10k points if my annual calendar spend total $25k+. Today I was informed by Chase that they discontinued the 10k bonus benefit in May 2018 and I would not receive the 10k bonus even if my spend was over $25k this year.

Can Chase really eliminate a promoted bonus benefit after I signed up for the card?

FlyingHighlander

They should honor what you signed up for. I can tell from experience they defintely wont honor anything you didnt sign up for. Is is possibile they closed this offer right before you applied? Do you have any evidence such as screenshots or emails proving the terms you signed up for?

FlyingHighlander

Seems like a reasonable request / honest mistake. I'd definitely ask them. Secure messages are usually replied to promptly.

nodomo

Two different Chase rep confirmed via SM that they discontinued the 10k bonus benefit in May 2018 and I would not receive it.

I'm 100% sure that my sign up offer back in April 2018 had the 10k bonus, because I signed up knowing I would have a large credit card purchase this year to qualify for the 10k bonus. Unfortunately, I did not save a screen shot or anything

FlyingHighlander

you quoted my response to someone else's unrelated question. But i understand your situation. All I can suggest is try to find very specific dates of exaxtly where you saw it advertised, what link you clicked from where. When did they receive your application? When did they approve it? What specific day did they pull the promo? May not be worth the hassle for you, but I certainly understand the frustration and bad will this creates.

nodomo

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll follow up again with Chase and see.

mia

This blog article published April 26, 2018 mentions the elimination of the feature, and describes a transitional replacement. Look for other articles around the same time to see if you can pin down exactly when the feature was removed, versus the date on which you applied.

Did you apply for United MileagePlus Explorer Card -or- United Explorer Credit Card. ?

gmt4

They gave about 2 months of advance warning back in April it was being discontinued, and offered a reduced award of 4k miles for meeting $10k spend by a specified cutoff date in June.. Plenty of info on it all further up in this thread.

They did this as they were transitioning to the new Explorer card in June. It sounds harsh but none of the changes (for better or for worse) were a mystery if someone paid attention. One of the cardinal rules of CC's is to always stay current with a card's benefits.

mia

That's applicable to existing cardholders who opened their account 12+ months before, but it may not apply to someone who applied more recently, because the Federal C.A.R.D. Act generally prohibits changing the terms of the product during the first 12 months.

An application submitted in April could have been made under the old terms or the new terms. There is no way for us to know, but if nodomo has a copy of the terms it may be straightforward to resolve, bearing in mind that the terms advertised one day, may not have been the terms displayed when applying on another day.

gmt4

Have to disagree, the card act protects against over the limit fees, rate hikes, double cycle billing, minimum payment disclosure, and so on. Those items are the card "terms" that you agree to and what issuers are bound by law to honor. Card benefits are not "terms," these are just as what the word means: benefits (perks). Issuers can and do change benefits and perks to cards, and sometime with little notice. The law is silent on changes in benefits which is what happened here. Its also important to note that the law covers personal cards not business cards.

In advance of issuing a new version of the Explorer card Chase reshaped benefits as I explained in my post above. In this case cardholders had around 2 months notice of the loss of the 10k award, and were offered a reduced 4k award before the new card launched. The time has long since passed on that reduced offer by over six months.

**IF** someone were to attempt to argue and successfully convince Chase to give a spending milestone award they have since discontinued it would be an act of customer service goodwill, not something required by any law.

All said all that, this discussion does bring up good point- I suggest that everyone read content of the card act. Card T&Cs are very clear on what your protections are and what issuers are bound to by law.

nodomo

Thanks for the feedback everyone. Just got another SM that said my case will be forwarded to the appropriate department for review and I'll get a response within 6 business days. At this point, I've met my qualifying spend for the 10k bonus points so hope they will honor it.

sdsearch

What the actual CARD act says and what the banks do based on their loose reading of it can be two very different things. For example, on personal cards, most banks have used that law to say you cannot product change a card in the first year that you have it. Whether that's really prohibited by the CARD act is irrelevant, the banks used the CARD act as a starting point but then set their own internal policies only "loosely" based on the CARD act. As long as they go beyond what the CARD act mandates (as opposed to not doing enough), there's no legal problem for them.

tomprc

Asked, and denied twice :-(

gmt4

But that has no bearing on the original question posed. The law is silent on benefits- which is what kicked off this discussion. Someone basically wants a retroactive credit for a benefit that is no longer offered. Another poster threw out using a card act defense as a mode to get the benefit the poster missed, however the card act offers no protection on benefits or perks. One needs to understand the fundamental differences in the specific (minimum) terms which are actually protected by law, company policies beyond those minimum protections (ultimately these are customer service provisions), and benefits which are completely customer perks geared to sell a product.

nodomo

Heard back from Chase. I guess they can cut off any benefit at any time. I opened my account in April 2018 and the benefit was discontinued May 2018.

Thank you for contacting Chase regarding the discontinued benefit on your United Explorer credit card account. I understand your concern with the benefit being discontinued soon after you opened your account.

Due to the discontinue of the benefit, Chase was giving the customers an opportunity to meet the spend by 05/31/2018. I verified the spend was not met by that date. I understand you would like to be able to take advantage of that offer for the entire year since you just opened the account. Regrettably, this benefit change was across the board and cannot be extended.